A notary public uses a notary journal to record notarized documents. Such is journal entries include the signer's name, address, driver's license information, title of the notarized document(s), and signature. Traditionally, subsequent signers could see all of a previous signer's information. A subsequent signer would then have access to the private information of a previous signer which could allow, at the least, a subsequent signer to breach the privacy of a former signer or, at worst, to commit identity theft.
An existing problem for notary public users occurs when a subsequent signer recognizes a previous signer and takes note of the previous document notarized, which reveals private financial, legal, or confidential information to the third party subsequent signer. Shielding signers from this breach of privacy is therefore desirable.
Previous options to guarding information from subsequent signers included using a new page for each signer, which is wasteful of the notary journal pages and an inefficient use of space. Another option was to use a blank sheet of paper to cover up previous entries but the paper was insecure and could easily slide, fall off, or be moved to reveal the information. Additionally, a blank sheet of paper is often transparent enough to allow the signer to still read the previous entries.
The following represents a list of known related art:
Reference:Issued to:Date of Issue:U.S. Pat. No. 6,905,104 B1 Offenhauer et. al.Jun. 14, 2005U.S. Pat. No. 3,861,718StrusJan. 21, 1975U.S. Pat. No. 3,114,552FlowerDec. 17, 1963U.S. Pat. No. 3,056,215SkinnerOct. 2, 1962
The teachings of each of the above-listed citations (which does not itself incorporate essential material by reference) are herein incorporated by reference. None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singularly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed.